Thanksgiving Update

Well, guess you want to know what else has been going on? LOL A whole lot of cooking, for one thing! Mum and Dad arrived the evening before Thanksgiving and were able to stay until the following Monday, so we had plenty of time to hang out. We stuffed ourselves silly on Thanksgiving, enjoying a really tender turkey and tons of side dishes, while using my good china and Granny and PawPaw's furniture. I remember eating several holiday meals at that table when I was young - though most of the time I got shunted to the kids table. Invariably I was the kid Granny snagged to set the table - and I remember her showing me where the basic silver went when I was 8 or 9 and had set it all out backwards. (I AM a leftie after all!)

On Friday I started my Christmas decorating -with Dad patiently handing crates up and down the attic ladder for me. Poor guy - nearly every visit he gets to visit my attic! I think he's seen nearly as much of it as I have. We took a break and went down to see the Chattanooga boat parade and Grande Illumination which I had never seen. What fun! The fireworks were spectacular and I got a few good pics. I'll post them next. If there were any good boat parade pictures then Mum probably has them, as most of mine were crap. On Saturday I finished decorating the living room and dining room and on Sunday I decorated the parlor. Daddy decorated my miniature tree in the dining room for me - and it looks spectacular! I even found some little 'rice lights' to put on it so it lights up and everything. I'll post a picture of it too.

Dad caught a cold while he was here :-( so he spent a lot of time resting his eyes in front of the TV, while Mum decided she wanted to sew and made herself a totebag from some leftover awning material that I had. We went to an estate sale, and though it was slim pickings, I did manage to pick up a nice bedspread and scarf.

For the most part we just hung out, puttering around the house, reading and dozing. The boys entertained us several times with a 'sing' - which my parents had never experienced - lol. It was nice having them here - especially since they'd never before seen my home decorated for Christmas!

Since they left, I've been busily keeping my doctors in business. (sigh) As you may know, the Remicade infusion that I had been taking to control my Crohn's disease stopped working for me and I've not been on any medication since my last infusion in September. Dr. Yates did a bunch of blood work and studies and was strongly considering putting me on cyclosporine. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a601207.html - for information on cyclosporine. When I met with him yesterday, he told me that he'd discussed my case with several other physicians, to see if they had ever had patients similar to me - with rectal/perianal Crohns that just doesn't seem to respond to all the normal treatments. We're a small and select group, apparently, but I am NOT the only one. Gee what a relief! LOL All the docs recommended trying Tacrolimus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a601117.html - for info on tacrolimus. While there are not yet large group studies, small group and anecdotal evidence shows a strong positive response to tacrolimus. Cyclosporine does not have the same type of success rate. Dr. Yates is leaning strongly towards using T instead of C, and after discussing it, I'm game to give it a shot. If all goes well, I'd start it next week. He is still determining the best dosage for me as he's never used in in a Crohn's patient before, though he's very comfortable with it with his liver transplant patients. I just want my butt to stop hurting. One fellow IBD'er on the IBD sucks board used to call it 'taco butt' - so appropriate! ROFL

By the way - I would not be taking either of those drugs at the levels shown in the information. The drugs were originally developed to stop organ rejection in transplant patients - obviously I won't have need of that high a dosage.

On another front, I was really disturbed when my bloodwork came back showing worse blood sugar values than before I started on medication! Talk about frustrating - I saw Dr. Large today about that, and he is inclined to leave things as they are and recheck it in two months. He suspects (and I agree now that I've thought about it) that the higher levels are due to the Crohn's flaring up - not a worsening of the 'metabolic syndrome' - aka pre-diabetes.

I'm 37 and my body is falling apart on me - sigh. What will 67 be like at this rate?!

On an upside - Mum and Dad will be happy to hear that I found the outdoor lights I wanted at Target! Hooray! The spacing was right and everything - so I didn't need to hang more hooks or do more than shake the lights out, hang 'em up and plug 'em in. All done! And Bob called me a few hours ago and left a message that Rebecca Audrey Meier arrived this morning just after 10:30 am, at 20 inches and 8+ pds. Congratulations and love to the new parents!!!